Official of L.A. Diocese Named Bishop of El Paso

The Vatican announced Monday that the Most Rev. Armando X. Ochoa, auxiliary bishop of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese for more than nine years, has been named bishop of El Paso.

Ochoa, born and raised in Oxnard, was ordained to the priesthood in 1970. He served a succession of three parishes in Los Angeles as an associate pastor and co-directed the archdiocese’s program of permanent deacons.

He was named administrator of Sacred Heart Parish in Lincoln Heights at the end of 1984, and its pastor in March 1986. Four months later he was appointed director of the archdiocese’s office for ethnic ministries and by December 1986 he was named an auxiliary, or assistant, bishop in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, which includes Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, has 3.6 million Catholics. In 1987 it was divided into five pastoral regions, with Ochoa assigned to the San Fernando region, based in Mission Hills.

Ochoa, who turns 53 on April 9, went to Texas over the weekend to confer with leaders of the 517,000-member diocese. He told a news conference in El Paso on Monday that he had never previously visited the city on the Mexican border. Ochoa’s territory will include not only El Paso but also most of West Texas.

With a Catholic population that is 85% Latino, Ochoa said, problems associated with legal and illegal immigration will be a challenge for the church, according to Maria Miranda, editor of the diocese’s newspaper. The Catholic Church has been sympathetic to the plight of migrants in a period of growing public and political opposition to providing government-paid social services to illegal immigrant families.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles predicted that Ochoa’s talents “will endear him quickly” to people in the El Paso diocese.

“A Mexican American fluent in Spanish, he will relate well to the sizable Hispanic population of El Paso,” Mahony said.

Before leaving for Texas, Ochoa left a message that made note of the unusual day for announcing his appointment. “I am quite sure you are wondering . . . is this one big April Fool’s joke or what?” was the opening line of the brief statement.

Not only was Monday the day to beware of jokesters, but the knowledgeable are aware that Pope John Paul II customarily announces new assignments for bishops on Tuesday.

Actually, a church spokesman said, the Vatican announcement was moved ahead to Monday from Tuesday because the annual Chrism Mass, at which more than 1,000 priests and auxiliary bishops pledge their loyalty to the bishop of Los Angeles, was being held Monday night in Encino.

“Priests would have wondered where Bishop Ochoa was, and no one who knew would be able to say anything if the Vatican were going to announce the appointment on Tuesday morning,” said Father Gregory Coiro, media relations director for the archdiocese.

Msgr. Gerald Wilkerson, pastor of Our Lady of Grace parish in Encino, where the Monday night Chrism Mass was held, called Ochoa “a very gentle man who has the good of people in mind and tries to understand their needs.

“He’s a people’s bishop in a lot of ways--easily approachable and very likable.”

Ochoa, who will return shortly to the San Fernando Valley for Holy Week services, said he expected to move to El Paso in mid-June.

The El Paso post has been vacant since last July when Bishop Raymundo J. Pena was assigned to the Brownsville, Texas, diocese.